YOU CAN READ MORE OF DOC'S PAST WORK BY CLICKING HERE
YOU CAN READ MORE OF DOC'S PAST WORK BY CLICKING HERE
Doc's DIS-patch
May 22, 1998 --- New York (APJP) -- For the last couple of weeks, The Doc has been amazed and perturbed at the emergence of "religious freedom" as a right wing hot-button issue.
First, we saw the beginning of a massive media tour by Focus on the Family high-exalted-bible-thumping-poobah Dr. James Dobson, an evangelical preacher and psychologist whose views on corporal punishment for children approach tacit support for abusive beating of kids.
The self-aggrandizing Dobson was turning up everywhere -- on wingnut "talk radio" plus Christian and conservative cable television, mainstream TV programming such as CNN's Larry King Live, a few of the Sunday pundit programs, and most of the major daily papers.
The reason -- this pompous, puffed-up self-proclaimed "spokesman" for the vague catch phrase "Family Values" and his followers, a few thousand believers who get far more attention from the so-called "liberal" media than they deserve on any rational scale of mainstream thinking, are threatening to break from the Republican Party unless the GOP comes to heel in support of their so-called "Family Values" positions.
Dobson and his followers are probably not going to be missed by 80% of the GOP -- in fact, the nation is starting to see an anti-right-wing backlash at the polls, with the sound trouncing of numerous "Christian conservative" in GOP primaries across the country. It's a rebellion by the "silent majority" of Republican moderates who have had it with Napoleonic tyrants like Dobson.
And that's not to mention Dobson's nauseating views on corporal punishment for kids, which speak eloquently for where his "Family Values" really lie -- yet few if any in the mainstream press seem to want to confront this extremist on this matter -- or the rest of his restrictive proto-fascist agenda, for that matter.
Around the same time, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) began the big push for his "Freedom from Religious Persecution Act," a blatantly illegal and illogical piece of legislation that would require the US to use sanctions against nations "that carry out religious persecution against any of their citizens."
You may have read about this ridiculous waste of valuable Congressional time recently in American Politics Journal.
But look on the bright side: if Wolf and his pals weren't busy trying to placate the mere thousands of Dobsonoid-Robertsonite-Falwellians with this idiotic legislation, they'd be wasting your taxpayer dollars on yet another Congressional investigation into nothing.
Nevertheless, you have to admit that it's pretty arrorgant of the already-shrinling evangelical "wing" of the GOP to cook up this legislation -- especially when they they "duck and cover" in the face of religious persecution going on in our own country!
Here's one example -- from smack-dab in the middle of Montana militia country:
A small Christian sect known as the Hutterites first immigrated to America in the late 19th century to escape religious persecution in Europe. The Hutterites (named after sect founder Jacob Hutter) are not unlike the Amish in a number of ways: they dress simply, live in small communal groups of around 100, and primarily farm. Most of the over 40,000 Hutterites in the US now live in the northern plains in nearly self-sufficient communities.
When a community gets "too large," it will usually buy property from another community and draw lots to determine who will form the "new" colony.
On March 8 of this year, a fire destroyed a large shed containing the lumber that was to be used to build houses, barns and other buildings for a new Hutterite community being established on the Marias River. Over $100,000 in materials were lost. An investigation turned up slam-dunk evidence of arson.
This arson was preceded by a campaign of vandalism aimed at the new community's farming supplies.
Local law enforcement is trying to play down the religious element in this incident, but the FBI is investigating, and has labeled the incident a hate crime.
The most appalling aspect of the situation is a lack of outrage by local media and communities. When Mark Nagasawa of the Montana Association of Churches tried to organize community meetings, he was rebuffed. Nagasawa was later quoted by the Associated Press: "I expected people to jump up on this and go, 'I can't believe this is happening,' [but] people seemed to understand that [the Hutterites] got their property burned and that's a terrible thing, but 'They are buying up our property' -- and all those excuses come up."
And if you don't think that example's enough to make you wonder if freedom of religion really begins at home, talk to the Willis family of Pike County, Alabama, about what those nice evangelical "Christians" have done to their kids.
You see, they're the only Jewish family in the Pike County school district.
Here's some of what has happened to their kids:
• Their 14-year-old son Paul was disciplined for disrupting class -- and ordered
to write an essay on "Why Jesus Loves Me."
• Their 13-year-old son David refused to bow his head during Christian prayers in
school -- a right which has been upheld in the courts -- and the teacher pushed
his head down. How many potential violations of Federal law, constitutional
guarantees and civil rights do you count in that scenario alone?
• The Willis children were forbidden to wear any Star of David jewelry because
according to school administration, they were "gang symbols."
By the way, my rapper/record producer pal MD Dawg Breth tells me that one of the big LA gangs requires certain members to wear a crucifix! Wonder if they know that in Pike County!
When the parents went to the school district to attempt to end the harrassment, one school superintendent is said to have advised the parents that the harassment would stop if the family would convert to Christianity.
A teacher then is said to have remarked "If parents will not save souls, we have to."
The Willis parents, with help from the ACLU, filed a massive lawsuit against the Pike County school district contending that the kids are being denied the opportunity to practice their faith while the vast majority of students can "freely practice Christianity" -- often to the point of mocking the Constitutional prohibition against government establishment of religion. They cited some three dozen anti-Semitic incidents… which did not include regular taunts from "nice evangelical children," obnoxious proselytizing teachers, and regularly have their yarmulkes yanked off their heads.
Such is the hypocrisy of these fundamentalist extremists: breaking down the barrier between church and state is OK just so long as they can go on persecuting people with different beliefs.
Hey! I guess that in the unlikely event that Frank Wolf's "Freedom from Religious Persecution Act" passes, the United States would therefore have to pass sanctions against itself.
But then, you have to remember that many these same "good Christians" rail against anything that smacks of "government intrusion" into their "beliefs" -- yet want to tear down the well-intentioned programs that are a safety net to families and children in peril of poverty and hunger.
I can only assume that that among these zealots, "practicing what you preach" just does not apply within the confines of US territory.
'Nuff said!
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